Email 2.1 - What's a community ROI?

? Before you start reading, keep in mind that I'm doing some tests to find the best format for sharing valuable information with you, so please-please-please share your thoughts, ideas, and valuable resources, or just say "Hi" via personal message so that I have some feedback from you ??

Let's Roll

Some time ago, if someone asked me this question, I'd say, "We have a sense of belonging in a community; you don't understand..."

But the more I work with communities, talk to stakeholders, different teams, and other community builders, the more I'm amazed at the power of communities, and the more I'm astonished at how bad we are (most of the community builders) in communicating it outside of the community world.

So, let's fix it! ??

Community ROI

Sometimes, it's hard to see the direct value of the community (we'll talk about it later), so let's start with how a community can bring value to other teams and departments:

Product — while a product team develops and focuses on making products better for customers, the community team collects all the feedback and customers’ needs, analyzes it, and brings it to the product team to build exactly what people want.

Customer support — if people face any challenges with a product, they need other like-minded people to talk about those challenges. That’s why people go to the community with every question they have about a product, and while communicating with other customers, they solve their problems and decrease a customer support team's load.

Marketing — community is a powerful instrument for engaging people and making them create user-generated content to share their experiences with others. A community also builds trust and loyalty and makes people happy. If you are happy, you’re shouting it out loud, which raises brand awareness.

Sales — millions of products are purchased all over the world through word of mouth. A community provides its members with amazing support, builds relationships, and is an amazing source of warm leads. And since a community holds all clients’ secrets and feedback, we definitely have some insights to share with the sales team ??

HR — people are interested in people, and when they see what is going on in the company’s community, how great communication is, and how seen and heard people feel, they want to become a part of this story and apply to positions shared within a community themselves or refer good people.

It's just a helicopter view of how a community can help other teams and the whole company reach their goals. In upcoming newsletters, I'll talk about all that in more detail!

Also, I'm preparing something amazing to share with you later, so stay tuned! ??

Mastering Freelancing

Let's start from scratch! If you're inspired by freelancers' freedom and want to become a freelancer yourself, I always say this half-joke: "Now that I'm a freelancer, I choose working hours myself so that I can work not only from 9 to 5, but even during the whole night!" ??

On the Freelance Sucks podcast, I talk to freelancers about their challenges and always ask what their advice is for someone who wants to become a freelancer, and here are TOP-3 answers:

• connect and talk to other freelancers (mostly in your niche) to have an understanding of what to prepare for and how to position yourself on the market (also, many good projects are shared through those connections)
• start freelancing as a side hustle to taste it and understand how hard it is to find projects, what are your communication and client acquisition skills, and if you like it at all
• prepare a 3-6 month financial buffer to ensure you can go through dry seasons when there are no projects on your radar!

So, if you want to become or already are a freelancer and still don't have an established professional network (of freelancers, recruiters, and potential clients) - start building one right away!

In upcoming newsletters, I'll be sharing tips and tricks I learned from multiple conversations with experienced freelancers.

Curiosity Corner

"Eventually, the work itself will become the purpose, and you will not care about the results. The work itself will become the reward, and you will stop looking outside it for rewards."

Excerpt From "The Gita for Children" by Roopa Pai, the book I loved reading shared with me by Nityesh Agarwal .

Upcoming Events

• Between Two Watercoolers Meeting 112 on Friday the 14th of June @ 10 am PT (7 pm CET) - to meet new and old friends from the community world
• Built To Scale Workshop on June 21st @ 8 am PT (5 pm CET) by Sarah Duran - a free virtual workshop for freelancers, consultants, and solopreneurs who want to turn their freelance hustle into a sustainable business

Valuable Materials

• Community Life conversation with Yurii Lazaruk (me ??) - to get to know Yurii a little better as a human
• Volunteering as a way to get projects for freelancers - Freelance Thrive conversation with Eric Bolikowski
• How to find your community as a freelancer - Freelance Sucks conversation with Daisy Hilbrands ACC ICF

Wait what? You're here?! Oh, wow, you're the best!

Please message me right away so I know the name of a hero who's read that far! ??????